BS 

58o 

CsHs 


UC-NRLF 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

PRESENTED  BY 

PROF. CHARLES  A.  KOFOID  AND 
MRS.  PRUDENCE  W.  KOFOID 


Who  was 
Cain's  Wife? 


\  LECTURE 

)ELIVERED  IN 

HE  FIRST  BAPTIST  CHURCH 

)F  ALBANY,  OREGON 

VPRIL,  1912 

IY  J.  L.,JJILL,  M.  D. 


WHO  WAS  CAIN'S 
WIFE 


A   LECTURE 


DELIVERED  IN 

THE  FIRST  BAPTIST  CHURCH 

OF  ALBANY,  OREGON 
APRIL,  1912 

BY  J.  L.  HILL,  M.  D. 


Rawlings.  Albany,  Oregon 


PREFACE  'C3H£r 


Since  delivering  this  lecture  I  have  been  asked  by 
a  number  of  persons  how  I  happened  to  take  up  the 
subject  of  Cains  wife,  as  I  am  not  affiliated  with  any 
church:  to  which  I  answer  that  I  am  a  reader  of 
good  literature  that  comes  within  reach,  dwelling  on 
the  best  longest,  with  repeated  readings.  The  Bible, 
from  beginning  to  end,  being  the  most  sublime  and 
instructive  of  any  book  we  have,  its  intense  perusal 
claims  priority.  Some  apparent  contradictions  occur 
in  it,  one  of  which  is  "Who  was  Cain's  wife?"  Believ- 
ing, as  I  did,  that  these  apparent  contradictions  are  su- 
sceptible of  solution  that  will  harmonize  in  every  in- 
stance I  determined  to  find  the  solution  to  the  sub- 
ject herein  contained.  To  this  end,  I  took  up  the 
subject  without  prejudice  or  favor  for  or  against  the 
believer  or  the  skeptic — with  the  conviction  that  if  the 
answer  could  not  be  a  reasonable  and  comprehensive 
one  the  argument  should  justly  belong  to  the  skeptic, 
who  claims  that  the  story  is  contradictory;  but  should 
the  answer  be  harmonious  the  advocate  of  the  veracity 
of  the  story  should  prevail. 

I  had  often  heard  feeble  attempts  made  to  give  a 
satisfactory  answer  to  the  question  but  none  had 
satisfied  my  mind.  The  doubt  still  remained.  To 
clear  up  that  doubt  was  an  invitation  to  engage  in 
the  investigation  just  as  intricate  mathematical  prob- 
lems must  be  handled.  In  one,  not  a  word  can  be 
overlooked  or  omitted — in  the  other,  not  a  figure  can 
be  overlooked  or  omitted.  With  the  same  diligence 
applied  to  one  that  must  be  to  the  other  I  believe  the 
answer  has  been  found  that  should  satisfy  the  most 
skeptical,  that  there  is  no  contradiction  or  inconsist- 
ency. That  part  of  the  lecture  referring  to  geology 
and  the  Pyramid  has  been  added  since  the  lecture 
was  delivered,  u 


WHO  WAS  CAIN'S  WIFE? 


This  question  I  have  heard  asked  many  times,  but 
have  never  heard  any  satisfactory  answer  to  it.  It  is 
frequently  answered  negatively  by  saying,  "There 
is  something  mysterious  about  it."  or,  "God  has  His 
own  way  that  we  cannot  understand,  but  we  should 
accept  without  question,  even  though  we  do  not  ful- 
ly understand  it." 

One  of  the  leading  causes  of  so  much  skepticism  is 
cursory  reading.  Many  apparent  contradictions  ap- 
pear in  the  Bible,  and  an  inability  of  the  exponents 
of  Holy  Writ  to  give  reasonable  answers  to  the  quer- 
ies that  are  propounded  give  origin  to,  and  are  very 
prolific  of  heresy  and  blasphemy. 

Study  is  toil,  and  a  disposition,  especially  of  the 
present  age,  is  to  avoid  analytical  reading.  When 
severe  thinking  confronts  the  ordinary  reader,  intel- 
lectual collapse,  or  mental  prostration,  calls  aloud  for 
respite.  Books  are  read  like  the  large  headlines  of  a 
newspaper,  abstractly,  with  surface  glare,  instead  of 
fundamentally  in  concrete.  A  half  understood  sci- 
ence, or  superficial  reading  of  history,  is  worse  than 
no  knowledge  of  the  subject.  Vital  subjects  require 
succinctness,  and  without  that,  confusion  and  doubt 
must  arise,  followed  by  avowed  apostasy.  The  tend- 
ency is  to  await  the  revelations  of  eternity  to  make 
things  clear,  rather  than  that  the  individual  closet 
himself  with  the  occult,  and  by  arduous  investigation 
divest  it  of  mystery.  It  is  true  that  all  knowledge  is 
but  the  shadow  of  God's  light,  but  it  will  not  be  re- 
flected on  one  who  is  too  stupid  or  indolent  to  open 
the  way  for  it  to  enter. 

[2] 


As  we  stand  amid  the  chaos  of  doubt,  surrounded 
with  the  evidences  of  ancient  tragedies,  and  imagine 
the  Great  Leader  has  forsaken  the  cause  of  progress, 
by  leaving  us  in  the  labyrinths  of  mystery  which 
cannot  be  solved,  we  are  unkindly  reflecting  on  the 
source  of  all  light,  and  wilfully  kneeling  before  the 
Juggernaut  of  our  own  stupidity  and  self  destruction. 

It  would  be  very  unsatisfactory  and  disappointing 
to  accept  the  invitation  of  "Rabbi  Ben  Ezra",  who 
said: 

"Grow  old  along  with  me 
The  best  is  yet  to  be, 

The  last  of  life  for  which  the  first  was  made; 
Our  times  are  in  His  Hand, 
Who  saith:  'A  whole  I  planned, 
Youth  shows  but  half:  trust  God;  see  all,  nor  be 
afraid." 

As  I  interpret  this,  when  we  are  entangled  in  the 
snare  of  doubt,  and  age  is  creeping  on  us,  we  should 
content  ourselves  with  the  idea  that  "The  best  is  yet 
to  be,  the  last  of  life  for  which  the  first  was  made;" 
and  we  should  supinely  await  the  end,  trusting  in 
God  to  land  us  in  the  haven  of  ultimate  blessedness, 
without  an  effort  on  our  own  part,  for  the  end  of  all 
is  daybreak  everywhere,  and  to  everyone. 

Our  most  strenuous  efforts  are  due  to  solve,  if 
possible,  what  we  call  mysterious,  which  are  product- 
ive of  questioning  the  veracity  of  our  creation  and  des- 
tination. To  say  our  time  is  in  His  hands,  and  He 
will  divulge  the  mysteries  in  the  end,  is  recreancy  and 
injustice.  It  is  true  our  time  is  in  His  hands,  but 
we  are  expected  to  make  use  of  it  by  defending  His 
works,  and  we  can  only  do  that  by  understanding 
them.  The  greatest  of  all  we  have  to  defend  is  the 
[3] 


History  He  has  given  us.     That  history  speaks  of 
Cain's  wife,  and  we  want  to  know  who  she  was. 

By  many  it  seems  to  be  unanswerable.  Commen- 
taries that  I  have  referred  to  seem  loath  to  touch  the 
subject.  Some  refer  to  Cain  as  the  first  born,  and 
the  first  murderer;  and  that  he  was  banished  for  his 
crime  and  went  to  the  land  of  Nod  where  he  knew 
his  wife.  An  occasional  writer  ventures  so  far  as 
to  say  Cain's  wife  was  his  sister,  who  was  younger 
than  himself,  and  that  they  together  went  to  the  land 
of  Nod  after  he  was  expelled  "to  become  a  fugitive 
and  vagabond  in  the  earth."  (Gen.  4:14). 

Admitting  that  he  was  the  first  born,  an  answer  to 
the  question  is  very  puzzling;  but  it  is  assumption 
without  a  shadow  of  proof  that  he  was  the  first  born. 

There  are  a  number  of  references  in  the  Bible  to 
the  first  born  in  other  relations,  both  among  man 
and  beast,  but  in  no  instance  or  way  do  any  one  of 
them  refer  to  Cain  either  directly  or  indirectly  as  the 
first  born.  His  name  is  not  mentioned  cronologically, 
except  as  being  the  product  of  Adam  and  Eve  after 
the  fall,  and  the  husband  of  the  woman  who  dwelt 
with  him  in  the  land  of  Nod,  and  the  father  of  Enoch. 
The  reference  to  the  first  born  in  other  creatures,  and 
absence  of  any  reference  to  Cain  having  been  one  in 
that  catagory  is  strong  presumptive  evidence  that 
Cain  was  not  the  first  born  of  his  parents. 

Why  should  the  first  born  be  given  special  promi- 
nence by  their  names  or  cronological  positions  being 
mentioned  in  all  except  the  one  (Cain),  whose  intol- 
erable record  has  descended  from  birth  through  an 
unbroken  history  to  the  present,  if  he  was  the  first 
born  of  his  parents? 

A  more  conspicuous  personage  mentioned  in  Holy 

[4] 


Writ,  except  Christ,  than  Cain,  is  not  apperent.  The 
one  for  his  goodness  and  the  other  for  his  badness. 
The  contrast  is  antipodal,  and  the  extremes  so  great, 
neither  in  his  realm  can  be  approached  by  comparison 
with  any  other  who  holds  a  place  in  sacred  history. 

All  minute  details  of  the  birth  of  one  are  given,  and 
it  has  not  been  overlooked  to  speak  of  Him  as  the 
only  begotten  son,  consequently,  the  first  born,  Mat. 
1 :25,  speaks  explicitly  of  Jesus  being  the  first  born, 
but  the  brith  of  Cain  is  simply  mentioned  as  an  occur- 
rence. Why  so  complete  history  of  one  and  so  in- 
complete in  the  other? 

In  the  absence  of  any  proof,  or  intimation,  that 
Cain  was  the  first  born,  and  strong  circumstantial  evi- 
dence that,  perhaps  generations  were  born  before 
him,  I  shall  argue  the  pre-existence,  by  birth,  of  oth- 
ers before  Cain.  Instead  of  the  evidence  to  be  de- 
duced contradicting  the  Bible  accounts,  it  conforms 
with  them  fully,  sustaining  them  from  a  standpoint 
of  reason  and  logic. 

The  supposed  mystery,  sometimes  called  a  fable  or 
a  fairy  tale,  concerning  Cain's  wife  is  not  mysterious 
if  the  reader  of  Genesis  will  systematically  analyze 
what  he  reads  and  correctly  connect  the  statements. 

The  only  account  given  of  time  seggregated  into 
hours,  days,  weeks  and  years,  prior  to  the  birth  of 
Cain,  is  the  six  days  consumed  in  the  creation  and 
the  seventh  for  rest.  From  the  last  date,  the  seventh 
day,  seggregated  time  has  no  reconing  till  after  the 
fall. 

There  was  no  necessity  for  calendar  reconing,  for 
Adam  and  Eve  were  intended  to  live  forever,  provided 
they  lived  under  the  law  of  life,  but  should  they  vio- 
late the  law  by  partaking  of  the  forbidden  fruit  they 

[5] 


should  surely  die  (Gen.  2:17;  3:3.)  Had  it  been  in- 
tended they  should  die  if  they  committed  no  sin  why 
is  it  there  was  no  statement  to  that  effect.  There  is 
no  reason  given  for  death  but  sin.  "The  wages  of  sin 
is  death." 

If  the  commission  of  sin  is  death,  and  the  first  time 
the  word  death  was  spoken  was  in  connection  with  a 
warning  against  doing  the  thing  that  would  cause 
death,  it  is  quite  evident  that  there  would  have  been 
no  death  had  not  the  cause  which  produced  it  been 
applied.  An  effect  is  the  result  of  a  cause  and  had 
there  been  no  cause  the  effect,  which  was  death, 
would  not  have  occurred. 

Again,  Adam  and  Eve,  in  the  sight  of  God,  were 
perfect  when  created,  for  they  were  made  in  His  own 
image,  and  made  by  Him,  and,  as  His  work  is  perfect, 
they  were  perfect.  There  could  be  no  reason  for  a  per- 
fect person  to  die,  therefore,  Adam  and  Eve  could  not 
have  died  in  their  perfection.  They  were  given  their 
freedom  in  the  garden  of  Eden,  and  made  rulers  of 
all  things  that  did  exist.  Their  personal  acts  were  not 
dictated  by  their  creator,  but  were  left  to  their  own 
election.  They  were  apprised  of  their  surroundings, 
and  the  consequences,  or  reward,  of  continuing  in  one 
path,  that  of  rectitude,  which  was  compared  to  the 
tree  of  life,  or  continuance  of  life,  and  the  certainty 
of  death  if  that  path  of  rectitude  should  be  digressed 
from,  the  digression  being  spoken  of  as  the  Tree  of 
Knowledge  of  good  and  evil,  from  which  they  should 
not  eat,  for  if  they  did  eat  from  it  they  should  surely 
die  (Gen.  2:17). 

With  this  instruction  and  admonition  they  were  left 
in  the  garden,  surrounded  with  all  luxuries  and  having 
domain  over  all  living  creatures.  (Gen.  1 :28).  They 

[6] 


were  harbingers  of  their  future  lives,  or  directors  of 
their  own  death.  They  were  free  agents,  unincum- 
bered,  unless,  they  chose  to  make  it  otherwise.  Had 
their  course  been  dictated,  instead  of  being  their  own 
choice,  they  would  not  have  been  free  agents,  and 
could  not  have  been  held  responsible  for  the  violation 
of  any  law,  or  been  entitled  to  credit  for  abiding  by,  or 
upholding  any  law. 

Had  there  been  no  law  that  could  be  violated  they 
could  not  have  been  free  agents  with  personal  re- 
sponsibility and  accountability,  but  the  human  family 
would  have  been  negative.  There  could  have  been  no 
choice  or  progress.  Humanity  would  have  been  auto- 
matic and  mentally  stationary.  For  the  encourage- 
ment of  individuality  Adam  and  Eve  were  invested 
with  individual  responsibility  to  take  a  choice  between 
two  options,  and  in  conformity  with  the  inquisitive 
nature  of  mankind  which  descends  to  their  latent 
off-spring,  even  to  this  remote  generation,  the  time 
came  in  the  career  of  Adam  and  Eve  when  an  investi- 
gation of  the  cause  of  a  danger  signal  was  institut- 
ed. They  became  curious  to  know  why  such  restric- 
tions were  placed  upon  certain  indulgences  and  not 
upon  others  mentioned  in  giving  advice  for  the  use 
of  what  appeared  in  the  garden. 

Many  do  not  considejr  the  expression  "Tree  of 
Knowledge,"  and  the  "Tree  of  Life  ?"  literally.  If  fig- 
urative they  have  reference  to  certain  laws — not  trees 
of  any  kind,  or  any  vegetation  that  grew  in  the  gar- 
den. As  to  whether  the  garden  was  to  be  understood 
literally  or  not  is  immaterial.  It  may  have  been  a 
state,  or  condition  of  existence.  Most  likely  it  meant 
a  state  of  blissfulness,  happy  surroundings  as  long 
as  obedience  to  prescribed  laws  were  adhered  to— 

[7] 


but  the  moment  those  laws  were     refracted,     literal 
death  would  come  to  the  transgressor. 

The  refraction  of  a  specific  law  spoken  of  as  the 
"Tree  of  Life"  was  apparently  irresistable  to  their 
human,  inquisitive  nature,  but  there  is  no  evidence,  or 
suggestion,  to  show  how  long  they  had  lived  before 
the  transgression,  or  that  they  had  not  lived,  multi- 
plied and  replenished  the  earth  for  thousands  ofyears 
before  they  ventured  to,  or  were  submissive  to  presua- 
sions  by  satan  to  violate  the  laws  by  passing  beyond 
the  danger  zone  in  the  abuse  of  their  privileges.  In- 
versely there  is  evidence  to  show  that  they  did  multi- 
ply, and  replenish  centuries  before  the  fall. 

Eve  had  not  so  much  as  been  given  a  name  until 
after  the  fall.  Prior  to  that  she  had  been  known  and 
spoken  of  as  "The  Woman,"  In  the  geneaology  of  the 
patriarchs  (Gen.  5:2),  God  created  male  and  female 
and  called  them  Adam,  in  the  day  they  were  created, 
All  persons  were  know  by  the  one  general  appellation 
of  Adam. 

Being  of  the  same  bone  and  flesh  of  man,  as  a  dis- 
tinction from  the  latter,  Eve  was  called  "Wo-man," 
or  "woman,"  until  after  the  transgression,  and  before 
any  account  had  been  given  of  the  birth  of  Cain,  when 
Adam  called  his  wife's  name  Eve ;  because  she  was  the 
mother  of  all  living  (Gen.  3:20). 

Who  were  "all  living?"  They  were  all  those  born 
after  calendar  time  had  ceased  to  be  used,  and  up  to 
the  date  of  condemnation.  Namely:  after  the  six 
days  of  creation  and  the  one  day  of  rest.  Nor  is  the 
length  of  a  day  at  the  time  of  creation  known.  That 
one  day  is  with  the  Lord  as  a  thousand  years,  and  a 
thousand  years  as  one  day.  (II  Pet.  3:8).  In  the 

[8] 


language  of  the  poet  Browning,  "So  let  him  wait  God's 
instant,  men  call  years." 

According  to  this  Eve  was  the  mother  of  children 
before  the  fall,  and  not  until  after  the  fall  was  Cain 
born.  Therefore,  Cain  was  not  the  first  born.  He 
went  into  the  land  of  Nod,  where  he  knew  his  wife, 
who  evidently  was  born  in  the  interim  between  the 
completion  of  the  earth  and  all  therein,  and  the  trans- 
gression, when  the  present  calendar  begun,  and  in 
which  latter  calendar  time  Cain  was  born  under  the 
reign  of  sin.  This  long  interim  had  no  proscribed 
time,  because  all  things  were  perfect,  even  as  God's 
time  is  not  proscribed,  because  it  is  perfect.  God's 
time  is  not  spoken  of  in  days  or  years.  It  is  limitless 
because  perfect, — hence  imperishable. 

Adam's  time  had  no  date  of  record  until  he  himself 
made  the  record  by  doing  the  thing  that  gave  date  to 
the  sentence  of  death  that  was  pronounced  upon  him. 
Before  that  he  multiplied  and  replenished  the  earth 
with  righteousness;  after  that  he  multiplied  and  re- 
plenished the  earth  with  the  unrighteous.  Before 
that,  time  was  not  enumerated;  after  that,  time  was 
enumerated.  Before  that,  there  were  no  deaths,  be- 
cause there  was  no  sin;  and  the  only  cause  of  death 
is  sin ;  after  that  there  was  death,  as  a  result  of  sin, 
for  "The  wages  of  sin  is  death." 

Those  who  were  born  before  the  fall  were  Eve's 
children,  just  as  those  born  after  the  fall  are  Eve's 
children.  While  Cain's  wife  was  a  child  of  Eve,  she, 
perhaps,  was  removed  from  Cain  through  remote  gen- 
erations, and  by  consanguinity  from  Adam  and  Eve, 
just  as  all  of  the  present  era,  who  marry,  though  the 
children  of  Adam  and  Eve,  are  removed  from  relation- 

[9] 


ship  with  each  other  through  distant  consinguinity 
with  Adam  and  Eve. 

Cain  did  not  marry  his  sister.  He  married  a  woman 
who  may  have  been  a  thousand  generations  from  him. 
Cain  was  a  direct  descendant  of  Eve,  while  his  wife 
was  an  indirect,  or  remote  descendant  of  Eve. 

In  the  creation,  which  was  finished  on  the  sixth  day, 
God  blessed  the  man  and  woman  of  His  creation,  and 
said  to  them  "Be  fruitful  and  multiply  and  replenish 
the  earth,  and  subdue  it.  (Gen.  1 :27;  28.)  This  was 
evidently  done  without  sorrow,  for  later,  after  the 
commission  of  sin,  the  Lord,  in  passing  sentence  on 
the  woman  said,  "I  will  greatly  multiply  thy  sorrow 
and  thy  conception ;  in  sorrow  thou  shall  bring  forth 
children."  Gen.  3:16). 

Her  first  children,  before  the  fall,  were  not  brought 
forth  in  sorrow,  for  no  sin  had  been  committed  to 
cause  sorrow;  but  her  children  brought  forth  after 
the  fall  were  brought  forth  in  sorrow,  as  a  result  of 
sin,  which  is  the  author  of  all  sorrow.  Her  first  born 
after  time  began  to  be  enumerated,  must  have  been 
Cain,  and  his  coming  was  the  embodyment  of  endless 
sorrow. 

Two  commands,  at  different  dates,  were  given  to 
multiply,  but  no  mention  of  sorrow  was  made  in  the 
first,  but  was  in  the  second,  therefore,  there  must  have 
been  two  sets  of  children  born  under  different  con- 
ditions. (Gen.  1:28;  3:16).  Cain's  wife  was  of  the 
former  generation,  and  Cain  was  of  the  latter  gene- 
ration. 

In  passing  sentence  on  Adam  the  Lord  said:  "Be- 
hold he  has  become  as  one  of  us,  to  know  good  from 
evil. "(Gen.  3:22.)  and  lest  he  put  forth  his  hand  and 
take  also  of  the  tree  of  life  and  live  forever,"  the 

[101 


Lord  sent  him  away  from  the  garden  of  Eden  to  till 
the  soil  from  whence  he  was  taken. 

Why  should  he  have  been  deprived  of  the  privilege 
of  living  forever?  It  was  done  as  an  act  of  mercy. 
He  was  condemed  in  sin,  and  had  he  lived  forever, 
without  the  transition  through  death,  his  life  would 
have  entailed  unending  grief.  Death  was  the  pre- 
scribed recompense,  and  without  reciprocal  death  hu- 
man existence  would  be  one  endless  carnival  of  crim- 
inality and  debasement. 

The  laws  of  God  are  as  irrevocable  as  they  are  im- 
pregnable. Adam  knew  the  law  in  its  comprehensive 
purity  and  justice,  with  the  reward  of  having  domin- 
ion over  all  that  abided  on  the  earth  as  long  as  abso- 
lute submission  to  every  provision  of  the  law  was  ob- 
served. He  also  knew  the  penalty  of  insubordination 
was  death.  But  human  existence  is  its  own  torment- 
er,  with  a  limit  to  the  harmony  it  should  enjoy.  The 
limit  was  reached  in  Adam's  life  when  the  turmoil  in- 
cident to  inquisitiveness  asserted  itself  at  the  time 
he  became  an  accomplice  in  violating  a  specific  law  of 
God. 

To  relieve  the  rancor  and  discord  of  that  lawless  spi- 
rit, death  was  Adam's  deliverance.  A  continuance  of 
his  adventurous  life,  after  the  transgression,  would 
have  been  to  him  an  earthly  purgatory,  because  it  was 
a  wilfull  estrangement  from  the  beneficence  of  God. 

Thus,  the  whole  tragic  drama  of  life  was  shorten- 
ed, as  was  the  shifting  fancies  that  celestial  light 
might  be  alternately  extinguished  and  reproduced  at 
man's  carnal  pleasure. 

In  speaking  of  disobedience  the  Lord  spoke  in  plu- 
ral— one  of  us — Who  could  He  have  been  addressing. 
This  was  said  before  the  birth  of  Cain.  But  suppose 

[HI 


Cain  had  been  born,  he  had  slain  Able,  and  himself 
been  banished,  and  if  there  had  been  no  prior  children 
to  include  the  second  person,  to  whom  addressed  in 
the  plural,  Eve  must  have  been  the  audience,  which  is 
entirely  improbable,  inasmuch  as  she  was  under  con- 
demnation, and  sentence  had  already  been  passed  up- 
on her.  It  is  not  probable  God  would  have  taken  the 
criminal  woman  into  His  confidence  and  to  her  un- 
folded His  plans;  and  especially  is  it  improbable  when 
it  was  her  husband  that  was  to  be  sentenced  to  hard 
labor  thereafter  until  death  should  come  to  him.  Then 
I  repeat,  who  was  the  plural  mentioned?  None  pos- 
sible but  those  born  before  the  fall,  when  time  was  not 
enumerated,  and  all  were  known  by  the  one  name- 
Adam.  (Gen.  5:2.)  Unless  He  was  addressing  the 
Triune  God,  whose  authority  was  from  the  beginning, 
and  whose  audience  may  have  been  sought. 

When  sentence  was  passed  upon  Cain,  he  said  to 
the  Lord,  "My  punishment  is  more  than  I  can  bear. 
(Gen.  4:13.)  I  shall  be  a  fugitive  and  vagabond  on 
the  earth,  and  it  shall  come  to  pass  that  every  one 
who  findeth  me  shall  slay  me"  (Gen.  4;  13;  14.) 

Who  was  every  one  whom  he  feared?  He  had  al- 
ready slain  Able,  leaving  only  Adam  and  Eve  as  ev- 
ery one.  He  certainly  did  not  fear  his  father  and  moth- 
er would  slay  him.  No,  not  by  any  means.  Cain 
knew  of  the  existence  of  generations  before  his  com- 
ing, and  it  was  those  he  feared. 

"And  the  Lord  said  unto  him,  Therefore  whosoever 
slayeth  Cain  vengeance  shall  be  taken  on  him  seven- 
fold. And  the  Lord  set  a  mark  on  Cain  lest  any  find- 
ing him  should  kill  him."  (Gen  4:15). 

Seeing  that  only  Cain's  Father  and  Mother  were 
"any  who  might  find  him"  if  there  were  no  previous 

[12] 


people,  or  generations  of  people,  what  necessity 
could  there  have  been  for  a  mark  of  identification  on 
the  son  they  had  reared.  Further,  if  they  knew  there 
were  but  three  persons  on  the  face  of  the  earth,  they 
two  and  Cain,  the  only  one  they  could  come  in  con- 
tact with  was  the  son  on  whom  a  mark  of  recognition 
was  to  be  placed. 

It  is  neither  plausable  or  probable  that  such  an  un- 
natural maelstrom  could  have  arisen.  The  mark  was 
placed  on  Cain  for  identification  by  those  born  before 
his  advent,  and  who  had  never  seen  him.  Perhaps 
that  identifying  mark  was  the  shield  that  saved  Cain 
from  being  slain  when  he  went  among  strangers,  in 
the  land  of  Nod,  in  search  of  a  wife.  What  that  mark 
was  no  one  knows,  and  it  is  not  material  that  it  should 
be  known,  further  than  that  it  acted  as  a  special  pass- 
port from  God  for  Cain's  protection  from  harm  to  all 
who  met  him  in  his  travels.  By  this  mark,  or  pass, 
he  might  travel  safely  through  strange  lands,  and  to 
make  the  protection  doubly  certain  the  Lord  said 
vengeance  would  be  taken  sevenfold  on  the  slayer  of 
Cain. 

That  any  who  met  Cain  might  understand  the  pen- 
alty of  slaying  him,  it  may  be  accepted  as  a  fact  that 
the  mark  carried  by  Cain  bore  the  law  and  penalty  of 
its  violation  on  the  face  of  the  passport. 

As  a  result  of  the  union  of  Cain  and  his  wife,  whom 
he  knew  in  the  land  of  Nod,  a  son  was  born,  and  they 
named  him  Enoch  and  Cain  built  a  city  and  called  it 
Enoch,  (Gen.  4:17).  If  Cain  and  his  wife  were  the 
entire  population  of  Nod  how  could  it  have  been  pos- 
sible for  the  one  man  to  have  built  a  city?  It  was  not 
possible.  He  employed  the  services  of  those  living 
there,  who  were  the  predecessors  of  Cain, -and -inhab- 

[13!] 


ited  that  country  before  sin  came  into  the  world 
through  disobedience,  and  before  individual  names 
were  given,  when  all  people  were  called  Adam. 

Those  perfect  people,  but  not  yet  named,  might 
have  been  in  the  attitude  expressed  in  the  beautiful 
poem  of  F.  L.  Duly,  entitled  "The  New  Name." 

I  know  not  what  the  name  will  be 
Which  Christ,  my  Lord,  will  give  to  me, 
When  at  my  journey's  end  I  stand 
Within  the  gates  of  Beulah  Land. 

From  the  fall,  when  time  began  to  be  reconed  in 
years,  Adam  lived  130  years  and  begot  a  son  who 
come  to  supply  the  place  made  vacant  through  the 
death  of  Able.  This  son  they  named  Seth.  (Gen. 
5  :3).  After  that  Adam  lived  800  years,  added  to  the 
previously  enumerated  time  of  Adam's  age,  after  the 
fall,  was  930  years,  when  he  died  ( Gen.  5 :3 ;  4 ;  5. ) 

This  conforms  to  the  sentence  that  "In  the  day  that 
thou  eatest  thereof  thou  shalt  surely  die."  (Gen. 
2:17).  And  the  age  accorded  Adam  after  the  sen- 
tence, corresponds  with  the  ages  of  others  who  lived 
at  the  time.  Seth  died  at  the  age  of  912.  Enos 
lived  905  years,  and  Methusela  lived  969  years.  So, 
we  see  the  longevity  of  Adam  coincided  with  that  of 
others  of  his  time. 

Again,  when  men  began  to  multiply  on  the  face  of 
the  earth,  and  daughters  were  born  unto  them,  the 
sons  of  God  took  the  daughters  of  men  as  wives.  (Gen. 
6:1:2.) 

How  are  we  to  interpret  that?  Who  were  the  sons 
of  God,  and  who  the  daughters  of  men  ? 

The  sons  of  God  were  those  born  before  the  trans- 
gression and  without  sin,  consequently,  they  were 
known  as  the  sons  of  God,  who  may  have  dwelt  in  the 

[14] 


land  of  Nod,  or  elsewhere.  And  the  daughters  of  men 
were  those  born  after  the  transgression,  and  were 
under  vicarious  condemnation,  hence  were  not  of 
God  and  could  only  be  the  daughters  of  men.  The  ex- 
pression "sons  of  God  and  daughters  of  men"  is  an- 
other evidence  of  the  existence  of  people  before  the 
birth  of  Cain. 

If  I  were  asked  what  effect  the  marriage  of  the  sin- 
less to  the  sinful  had  on  the  former  I  would  answer 
that  the  sons  of  God,  who  were  without  sin  before 
their  marriage  to  the  condemned  daughters  of  men, 
through  that  mariage,  became  contaminated  by  vi- 
cious association  contrary  to  the  laws  of  God,  and  vi- 
cariously, before  the  nuptial  garlands  had  faded  con- 
demnation became  universal. 

The  vital  question  is,  "Who  was  Cain's  wife?"  She 
was  a  woman  who  was  born  before  the  transgression, 
and  lived,  perhaps  in  the  land  of  Nod,  and  was  a  child 
of  Eve,  just  as  we  of  this  generation  and  country  are 
the  children  of  Eve.  Cain's  marriage  to  her  was  no 
more  incestuous  than  the  marriage  of  men  and  women 
of  this  age.  Kinship,  though  existing,  was  then,  in 
those  of  that  time,  and  is  now,  wtih  those  of  this  time, 
so  distant  from  the  original  parentage  in  consanguin- 
ity and,  in  fact,  it  was  and  has  been  practically  ex- 
tinguished. 

According  to  the  only  history  we  have  of  the  crea- 
tion is  it  not  a  fact  that  intermarriage  of  brothers  and 
sisters  must  have  taken  place  in  the  beginning,  and,  if 
so,  was  that  not  incest?  Most  assuredly  intermar- 
riage must  have  been,  but  before  the  fall  all  children 
of  Adam  and  Eve  were  perfect,  therefore  their  mar- 
riage and  procreation  was  not  criminal  incest,  be- 
cause sin  had  not  come  into  the  world,  for  the  promul- 

f  151 


gated  law  to  refrain  from  indulging  in  the  forbidden 
fruit  which  was  the  beginning  of  sin.  had,  up  to  this 
time,  been  adhered  to. 

We  rre  all  related  to  Cain,  and  to  Cain's  wife,  ac- 
cording to  the  record  of  the  creation  which  we  find 
in  the  bible,  though  we  take  no  special  pride  in  pub 
lishing  our  relationship  to  Cain. 

God  created  out  of  one  blood  all  nations  of  men  to 
dwell  upon  all  the  face  of  the  earth,  and  hath  deter- 
mined the  times  before  appointed,  and  the  bounds  of 
their  habitation.  (Acts  17:26). 

Geology  teaches  that  the  earth  has  existed  for  many 
thousands,  and  perhaps  millions  of  years,  as  shown  by 
fossil  remains  of  pre-historic  life  and  earth  stratas 
that  far  antedate  any  history  that  we  have  access  to. 
Accepting  the  teachings  of  geology  is  confirmation  of 
the  belief  that  chronological  time  ceased  after  the 
historic  creation,  and  no  further  reconing  was  made 
until  after  the  fall.  Six  thousand  years  is  the  esti- 
mated time  from  the  creation  to  the  year  1873  accord- 
ing to  chronological  summing  of  important  events, 
but  both  geology  and  physical  geography  prove  this 
reconing  to  be  inaccurate.  Then  how  are  these  seem- 
ing discrepancies  to  be  harmonized?  Just  one  way 
only,  and  that  without  violence  to  reason. 

Darwin,  the  celebrated  geologist,  attributed  to  the 
European  man  Who  witnessed  the  last  glacial  period 
an  antiquity  of  250,000  years,  which  coinsides  with 
the  biblical  account  of  Cain,  who  was  the  first  child 
born  in  sin  who  knew  his  wife  in  the  land  of  Nod, 
where  she  was  one  of  the  many  thousands  who  were 
without  record  or  name,  because  human  life,  up  to  the 
latter  date  was  without  stultification,  and  was  one 
homogeneous,  unmasked  concourse  in  tranquility 

[16] 


with  no  cause  for  recorded  epochs.  Some  other  geol- 
ogists with  equal  celebrity  with  Darwin  insist  that  in- 
stead of  thousands  of  years  the  time  is  millions  of 
years  since  the  beginning  of  time. 

Now,  when  science  affords  such  discrepancies  as 
sources  of  controversy  is  it  not  very  plausable  that 
many  thousands  of  those  years  are  without  record? 
Or  to  put  it  stronger:  is  it  not  a  fact,  according  to  the 
geological  exposition  before  us  that  there  is  a  wide 
gap  in  the  earth's  time  that  has  no  written  history. 
And  if  that  is  true,  which  I  believe  all  will  admit,  is  it 
not  also  true  that  we  have  an  accepted  record  of  the 
beginning  of  time  and  things,  and  if  that  latter  rec- 
ord dates  back  thousands,  or  millions  of  years  the 
greater  part  of  that  time  is  a  blank  to  us  except  the 
knowledge  given  by  geology.  Therefore,  if  life  be- 
gan with  the  creation  of  the  earth  nothing  is  known 
of  the  human  family  from  that  date  till  the  fall  except 
that  they  did  multiply  and  replenish,  for  that  was  the 
command  given  Adam  and  Eve,  and  their  refusal  to 
do  so  would  have  been  a  direct  violation  of  God's  law 
as  much  as  partaking  of  the  forbidden  fruit  at  a  later 
date;  and  had  the  first  injunction  been  violated  or  dis- 
obeyed we  would  have  a  record  of  that  just  as  we  have 
of  the  disobedience  in  the  other.  So,  if  this  multipli- 
cation of  human  life  was  going  on  during  that  long 
unrecorded  time  the  people  of  the  earth  would  have 
been  many  when  the  next  epoch  for  record  began,  and 
there  could  be  no  mystery  as  to  the  identity  of  Cain's 
wife. 

I  recently  read  a  labored  address  of  a  learned  di- 
vine who  attempted  to  extricate  himself  from  the 
labyrinth  of  trustification  in  which  he  placed  himself 
by  attempting  to  overthrow  the  teachings  of  geology 

[17] 


as  to  the  antiquity  of  the  earth's  creation,  which  he 
assumed  controverted  the  more  recent  creation  ac- 
cording to  his  interpretation  of  biblical  history.  The 
only  collision,  or  controversy,  dwells  in  the  mind  of 
man  who  fails  to  analyze  the  premises  logically,  and 
through  this  lack  many  are  beguiled  into  skepticism, 
where  they  attempt  to  take  refuge  behind  a  false  bul- 
wark of  their  own  'erection  through  lack  of  penetra- 
tion and  record  interpretation. 

We  sometimes  hear  an  assumed  expounder  o-f  the 
bible  assert  that  it,  the  Bible,  is  an  easy  book  to  under- 
stand. When  I  hear  that  statement  I  am  assured  that 
the  one  who  makes  it  as  a  sciolist.  The  Bible  is  not 
only  a  history  of  events — it  is  much  more.  Besides 
being  history  it  is  poetry  in  its  sublimity  and  gran- 
dure,  and  is  the  embodiment  of  science  in  all  its  pro- 
fundity. 

To  assume  that  the  depths  of  Bible  science  is  easily 
reached,  with  little  thought,  is  as  fallacious  as  to  as 
sume  that  algebra,  trigonometry,  or  biology  are  of 
easy  solution  by  untutored  minds.  The  Bible  is  a  hard 
book  to  understand,  but  when  understood  through 
patient  analytical  study  the  apparent  contradictions, 
or  apparent  unreasonable,  or  extravagant  statements 
it  contains  can  be  harmonized  to  mathematical  cer 
tainty,  and  to  the  satisfaction  of  those  who  think  first 
and  assume  later. 

There  is  cricumstantial  evidence  that  the  Great 
Pyramid  Gizeh,  which  stands  at  the  head  of  the  seven 
wonders  of  the  world,  was  erected  during  the  interval 
without  record.  There  is  no  history  of  its  building 
and  nothing  to  indicate  when,  by  whom,  or  for  what 
purpose  it  was  built.  The  only  thing,  we  do  know  is 
that  it  conforms  to  astronomical  developments  of  the 

[18] 


heavens,  and  some  later  writers  believe  the  Pyramid 
is  an  index  from  the  beginning  to  the  end  of  time,  and 
will  yet  be  read  and  understood  definitely  as  scientific 
investigation  proceeds. 

One  stone  in  the  Pyramids  construction  is  estimat- 
ed to  weigh  880  tons,  or  1,760,000  pounds.  Solid 
stones  thirty  feet  in  length  are  so  mechanically  joined 
without  the  use  of  mortar  that  a  pen  knife  may  be 
drawn  over  the  joint  without  detecting  the  union  by 
the  sensation.  The  Pyramid  covers  about  thirteen 
acres  and  is  486  feet  high,  and  764  feet  at  the  base.  It 
is  estimated  that  it  weighs  six  million  tons,  and  that 
to  remove  it  would  require  sixty  thousand  steam  en- 
gines, each  drawing  one  hundred  tons.  It  is  also  said 
the  wealth  of  the  whole  of  Egypt  is  not  enough  to  pay 
laborers  to  demolish  it.  Another  important  fact,  late- 
ly discovered,  connected  with  it,  is,  that  the  Pyramid 
is  located  in  the  geographical  center  of  the  land  sur- 
face of  the  world — including  North  and  South  Ameri- 
ca. The  distance  to  the  sun,  according  to  scientists  is 
indicated  by  the  height  and  angle  of  the  Great  Pyra- 
mid, to  be  91,840,270  miles,  which  almost  exactly  cor- 
responds with  the  latest  figures  of  astronomers,  who 
make  the  distance  92,000,000  miles, — correction  of 
former  figures  which  placed  it  at  96,000,000  miles. 

We  must  not  forget  that  there  are  other  Pyramids 
besides  the  Great  Pyramids  but  all  others  are  infer- 
ior in  every  respect  and  absolutely  perfect  in  none. 
Their  composition  and  architecture  are  inferior  and 
there  is  no  astronomical  significance  in  any  of  them  so 
far  as  investigation  has  gone.  They  seem  to  be  sep- 
ulchers  for  potentates  of  special  renown,  or  store- 
houses for  idols  and  religious  emblems.  They  are 
poor  imitations  of  the  one  Great  Pyramid,  and  they 

[191 


are  also  without  history  as  to  builders  or  time  of 
building,  but  their  inferiority  and  imperfections  make 
their  history  unimportant. 

The  query  might  arise  as  to  why  the  Great  Pyramid 
was  erected  before  the  fall  and  other  Pyramids  not. 
The  answer  is  that  before  the  fall  all  people  were  per- 
fect and  in  their  perfection  were  evidently  capable  of 
doing  things  that  were  not  within  the  power  of  the  im- 
perfect to  do.  That  before  the  transgression  all  man- 
kind were  under  the  direct  guidance  of  the  Almighty, 
and  that  whatever  they  did  while  in  that  attitude  was 
perfection,  and  not  fraught  with  arduous  labor  or  dis- 
appointment in  construction,  and  by  the  sweat  of  the 
face,  as  it  became  after  the  fall. 

The  next  question  is,  why  was  the  Great  Pyramid 
not  mentioned  in  the  Bible  if  it  was  constructed  as  a 
special  monument  astronomically,  or  for  other  pur- 
poses under  direction  of  the  Allwise?  The  answer  is 
that  it  was  built  in  the  time  without  record  and  when 
no  record  was  needed. 


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